Photo by: Artem Podrez
Walking into a smoke shop in Florida is a slightly bizarre experience. In many counties, officials can arrest someone for having a gram of cannabis. This can potentially result in a $1,000 fine or jail for a year. Despite this, these smoke shops exist throughout the state. One can only purchase cannabis in legally-designated medical dispensaries. But the smoke shop will have flower, pre-rolls, edibles, vapes, and concentrates. All are out on display, replete with green leafs and other obligatory stoner marketing.
At first, one may consider the possibility that the smoke shop is somehow operating illicitly. But these are legal products. However, they don’t contain conventional THC.
In Florida and states without recreational cannabis laws, there has been the emergence of a galaxy of cannabis derivatives: delta-8 THC, THCa, THC-O, THC-P, D10, and HHC, among others. No state or federal agency regulates these products—and some claim that these derivatives are stronger than conventional cannabis.
These compounds make up the confused and convoluted cannabis market in states that can’t sell (real) recreational cannabis. And, because they aren’t staffed by chemists, the smoke shops themselves don’t know what many of these compounds are.
The emergence of this market coincides with the 2018 Farm Bill. The federal legislation allowed the sale, cultivation, and consumption of hemp. Hemp is legally defined as cannabis products with under .3% delta-9 THC, which produces the high from cannabis. This federal measure effectively legalized the other psychoactive and non-psychoactive compounds and categorized them as hemp. However, these cannabis derivatives operate in a liminal legal space. Many lawmakers were unaware that legalizing hemp would result in a legal loophole that permits the sale of psychoactive cannabinoids.
In Florida, unlike the cannabis sold at the medical dispensaries, the Department of Health does not regulate these “hemp” products. Instead, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services regulates them.
The immediate question is this: What are these different cannabinoid compounds that claim to be cannabis substitutes and how does one know what they contain?
What is “Legal” Cannabis in a Non-Recreational State?
While all the products mentioned above are legal psychoactive cannabinoid compounds, one of the most popular is delta-8 THC. Delta-8 is a naturally occurring cannabinoid found in low amounts in cannabis. This compound, prevalent in Florida and in smoke shops across the country, produces a stoned effect that closely mimics the high of ordinary cannabis. While delta-8 is naturally occurring, to generate high levels of potency beyond what is present in the plant, companies often resort to a chemical synthesis involving CBD, according to Chemical and Engineering News.
THCa, another legal cannabis product and a precursor to THC, is marginally different. It is a compound, like delta-8, that is naturally occurring in cannabis. Yet when burned, it converts into traditional THC through the process of decarboxylation. In essence, once heated up, THCa becomes THC. However, this conversion results in a lower potency.
Through the change in carbon, the product in the smoke shop (THCa) becomes indistinguishable from the cannabis in the dispensary down the street. A gram of THCa flower does not necessarily convert into a gram of the cannabis flower found in the legal dispensary. Experts estimate that THCa loses a few percent of THC when burned due to decarboxylation, which means that 18% THCa would convert to around 15% THC. Unlike delta-8, THCa flower can be produced through genetic selection of cannabis plants, or it can be extracted from conventional cannabis.
Another fascinating cannabis product is THC-O. Some claim that THC-O, while legal, is a more potent form of THC than delta-9 THC. Unlike the other compounds mentioned, THC-O is a synthetic cannabinoid. It does not occur organically in a cannabis plant, according to USA Today.
Early in its emergence, some compared THC-O to psychedelics, and referred to as the “psychedelic compound.” Yet, an article in the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs determined there was “scarce evidence” that this claim was true.
THC-O leads to some confounding moments at a Florida smoke shop. THC-O can be produced into delta-9-THC-O, “by taking CBD and converting it to delta-8 or delta-9, then combining it with another chemical,” per USA Today.
Due to this process, THC-O can ambiguously list products in smoke shops as delta-9. When I asked a smoke shop worker (who probably assumed I was a probing narcotics officer) how they were selling delta-9-THC, he blankly, and somewhat nervously, told me that it was the “legal kind” of delta-9.
Regulatory Processes: How is it Tested?
After distinguishing between all the different cannabinoids and their pharmacology, there remains unanswered questions. How is one sure that the vape on the smoke shop shelf, next to the slightly obnoxious Rick and Morty bong and the Cheech and Chong rolling tray, contains THC-O or delta-8 and not some other compound?
Medical cannabis in Florida is tightly regulated. Due to the Florida Department of Health’s regulations, all products clearly state their THC percentage and undergo testing. However, other cannabinoids do not have these same stringent regulations. Outside of ensuring that the products do not contain more than the legal limit of .3% THC, there is no substantial oversight of the testing of these compounds.
Chemical & Engineering News wrote that there is, “no regulatory oversight and limited laboratory testing” for cannabinoids such as delta-8.
Knowing what is in a product is especially imperative since numerous studies have questioned the health effects of these cannabinoids. For example, research has found smoking or vaping THC-O can lead to the formation of the poisonous gas ketene. Additionally, the FDA issued concerns about the chemicals used to produce delta-8.
Surprisingly, in June of this year, Gov. Ron Desantis vetoed a bill that would have effectively banned delta-8 and other psychotropic hemp products. However, he explained that future legislation should consider including “random, unannounced inspections, standardized and repeated testing, and dosing, packaging, and unit purchase caps that better correspond to the character of the products and their intoxicating capabilities.”
For now, although independent laboratories test some products, there is no state standard for testing. The cannabis market in Florida remains in its Wild West stages, allowing for a proliferation of cannabinoids. While intriguing from a pharmacological perspective, it remains dangerous when commerce comes before consumer safety.
Leave a Reply